Saturday, 31 March 2012

Another new limited edition collection by Catrice for this spring, feMale celebrates the dandy look with a dash of feminine elegance through contrasting soft nude and apricot shades with masculine silver, blue and grey. The glittery Mascara Topcoat 01 FEMIman tucked away in the corner doesn't quite fit with the dandy theme but nevertheless, it's ultra pretty with flashes of green and purple sparkle in addition to the silvery richness. The two Lip Balm Tubes look similar to the packaging of L'Occitane hand creams. The Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks 01 Love Me Gender, 02 Tomboy and 03 Boys Are Back resemble the Body Shop's shimmer cubes, right down to the clear plastic cube packaging. These had medium color payoff with a soft gleam. Since I already own several Shimmer Cubes, I didn't find these to be that special or unique. The collection also includes four nail polishes and a medium rose Cream To Powder Blush 01 A Woman's World. Below are swatches of the three Duo Chalks and the Cream To Powder Blush (bottom left corner). You can see more swatches of the Duo Chalks on Witoxicity.

Spotted this new Spa Fit range at my local Body Shop! It's a home spa collection designed to offer firming and toning benefits with ingredients like caffeine. While I don't believe in firming body products, I did like the deliciously fresh orange and grapefruit scent of the Smoothing & Refining Body Scrub. The collection also includes a Body Massager, Intensive Toning Concentrade and a Toning Massage Oil. The Massage Oil is a blend of soybean, corn, sunflower seed, tangerine peel, grapefruit seed and basil oils. The prices were ridiculously high though with the scrub going for CHF32.90 (about S$46) so I didn't purchase anything.

Friday, 30 March 2012

On my last trip to London, I picked up another RMK Sprinkling Eyes palette (£36) at Selfridges, this time in 03 Gray. As mentioned in my review of Sprinkling Eyes 02 Green, the smoky grey cream base is meant to be used under the other three powder eyeshadows. I used the included brush to apply the grey shade from the lashline to the crease, the periwinkle shade over the browbone area, the medium grey shade in the crease and the brown shade along the lower lashline. The smoky grey shade takes some layering with the brush to get it to show up well. The three powder shades have a lovely shimmer that is not overly frosty. They are not intensely pigmented. Instead, they add a subtle, nuanced wash of color to the lids. Although I did not use a primer, the eyeshadows lasted well over more than eight hours of wear, with only a bit of creasing at the inner corners. When I tried it on another day over a primer, there was no creasing or fading. For this look, I used Maquillage Essence Rich White Liquid UV OC00, Lunasol Under Eyes Base 01 Natural Beige, Anna Sui Perfect Mascara and Rose Cheek Color #301, Pixi Endless Silky Eye PenNo.1 Black Noir and No. 9 Oyster Glow, and Rose & Co Apothecary Rose Petal Salve. Of the mascaras I've tried over the past few months, Anna Sui's Perfect Mascara is my favourite as it holds the curl of my lashes beautifully and adds impressive length to my super short lower lashes. The narrow slim brush is easy to handle, and never pokes my lids like the spikes of Benefit's They're Real often do. Although it has ultra-short super fibres, these do not make a irritating mess by falling into my eyes like Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus. I've had my tube for six months now and it is still working well whereas my Dolly Wink Volume Mascara has already dried out after four months. Pixi's eyeliner pencils have become a fast favourite as they glide on smoothly without tugging at the skin. Black Noir is a super intense matte black, not quite as black as Urban Decay Perversion but close. The lead of my Perversion pencil has somehow shrunk away from the wooden part, so it is rattling around inside the wood and not applying as smoothly as Black Noir. Oyster Glow is the perfect shade for highlighting the lower lashline to help one look more awake. If you like rose-scented beauty products, then the Rose Petal Salve and Rose Cheek Color are well worth checking out. The Rose Cheek Color has good payoff and gives a healthy pop of the color to the cheeks. You can see swatches of Sprinkling Eyes 03 Gray on Drivel about Frivol and two lovely looks created with Sprinkling Eyes 01 Brown and 03 Green on Alice's blog.

Thanks to Mag, I was able to get the LeSportsac 2012 Spring/Summer Collection mook which comes with a charming pouch in the new Picnic print.The "2 way nano sized pouch" measures just 27x20x7cm, so I would use this as a bag-in-bag instead. The design is a miniature version of the Everygirl tote. There is also a Dot version (black with white polka dots) which you can see on Womania. The mook retails for 1380yen on Amazon Japan and US$27.49 on YesAsia.com (inclusive of free international shipping). I don't know the exact price at Kinokuniya in Singapore but I think it is at least S$30. It does seem pricey but considering that the Picnic Junior Every Girl Tote (20x20x10cm) retails at 6510yen, the price of the mook looks reasonable in comparison. The whimsical picnic print sprinkled with cherries, strawberries and butterflies turned out to be much more attractive in real life than I had expected, based on the official images online. I also liked the placement on my pouch. Although the pouch comes with a detachable strap, I would not use the strap as the size looks more appropriate for a child. The strap can be adjusted between 65cm to 125cm. There is also a keychain with a plastic heart charm. The materials are the same as those used for the usual LeSportSac bags. The front zip pocket can fit two lipsticks easily. While the pouch looks tiny, it can fit quite a number of makeup products. In it, I managed to fit a powder foundation case, a face powder case, a lipgloss pot, four lipsticks, two lipglosses, an eyegloss duo, a blush pot and an eyeshadow. While most of the seams inside the bag are covered, the seam running across the top (where the grey straps are attached) are exposed. There is a layer of padding between the exterior and the inner pink lining. The pouch is the "baby" of the family with my Everygirl Tote (right) and Deluxe Everygirl Tote (left)!

Thursday, 29 March 2012

For this year's Earth Hour, Tangs has partnered with the WWF to create a 100% Bamboo Bag (S$10) to encourage customers to reduce their use of plastic and paper bags. Only 800 are available at Tangs now until Saturday 31 March. Not only do the entire proceeds go to the WWF, Tangs will contribute $10 to the WWF for every bag sold, thereby aiming to raise a total of $16,000 for the WWF. Tangs stores will also switch off their lights for 80 minutes on 31 March. Some brands are also running special promotions in conjunction with this campaign. The details are on Tangs.com.

Here are pics from Biteki of the Lunasol Summer 2012 collection which will be released on 18 May in Japan. Like the spring 2012 collection, it is inspired by the momoka rose (桃香) which has peach inner petals framed by rose pink outer petals with a sweet scent. Petal Pure Eyes EX01 Fresh Pink and EX02 Fresh Coral (5250yen)The Glowing Powder Cheeks EX03 Pure Coral Pink (3675yen) is a blush duo in pink and coral. See more pics of the collection and the revamped nailpolish line on Biteki.com.

Wednesday, 28 March 2012

Maybelline will release a new Pure Mineral BB Clear Stick (1260yen; 10g) on 23 June in Japan. Available in just one shade with SPF31 PA+++, the two-tone stick supposedly helps to provide coverage of pores and oil control. See more pics here. Hopefully this will be a much better formula than their Pure Mineral BB Mousse which despite several tries, just did not apply evenly on my skin and ended up enhancing my pores instead with an unflattering matte finish. Pics from Kokusaishogyo.